Best Bet Plus Two (week 4)

September 30, 2009 by Steel Haven

For the second week in a row the QB from my best bet went down to injury. This week Pennington was lost for the year with a shoulder injury after Hasselbeck suffered a broken rib last week. I laugh at the Madden and SI cover jinxes. I am planning on picking the Bengals and Ravens as my best bets in the hopes of knocking Palmer and Flacco out. If only I was so omnipotent.

My selection of the Raiders did end up being bat-shit insane as Lake37 intimated in much nicer words on the message board after my picks were originally posted last week. I'm sure Raiders fans wish I would have made them my best bet so the abysmal Russell would have been lost for the year. The Bears barely saved me from a winless week. Mostly that was just because the Seahawks really do suck. Plus you have to figure the football gods are likely to doom them to finishing 1-15 after wearing those ugly neon-green uniforms. To think I like to complain about the Bengals, Browns and Dolphins wearing orange as an alternate jersey.

This week I am going to pile on and pick against the early season dregs of the league, giving points in each case. I really thought some of these spreads should be much higher.

home team in bold

Best Bet

Cincinnati Bengals (-5.5) over Cleveland Browns

Please believe me when I tell you that after last week's debacle in Cincinnati the last thing I want to do is jump on the Bengals bandwagon. I am really trying to not write too much into the Bengals taking advantage of a miriad of Steelers mistakes. After all the Bengals really did play relatively poorly. But this is the Browns. Eric Mangini's Browns. Joe Posnanski wrote an article this week in SI about how it might not be hyperbole to say Mangini is the worst coaching hire in 25 years. He pretty much has it right.

Others

New York Giants (-8.5) over Kansas City Chiefs

The undefeated Giants have already had their fair share of injuries and might not be particularly up for this game against a subpar non-conference opponent. Who cares? The Chiefs are so awful that the Giants entire roster including the practice squad could all go to a trendy NYC nightclub with illegal firearms, accidently shoot themselves, get two years at Fishkill Correctional Facility and Jerry Reese would still be able to find players off the street by this Sunday that could beat the Chiefs. OK, that was hyperbole. But the Giants didn't all shoot themselves.

Houston Texans (-9) over Oakland Raiders

I was an idiot to pick the Raiders last week. The only thing more bat-shit insane than me making that pick is basically every move Al Davis has made in the last five years. The Texans have had their ups and downs so far, but they are a relatively competently coached team with solid offensive weapons. The fact that they are dead last in yardage defense in the early going shouldn't matter all that much against an offense that can not get out of their own way.